Just half a day after taking the 15-16 National Age Group (NAG) 200 IM record below 1:44 for the first time, Michael Andrew broke yet another barrier, going 1:42.77 in the final.
That won the title at the Speedo West Winter Junior Championships by a huge margin of nearly four seconds, and also took another full second off the NAG record he set in prelims.
Andrew set the mark at 1:43.94 in prelims, taking down the 1:44.03 set by Andrew Seliskar back in 2012. As we noted in our coverage of that record, the mark has dropped significantly in the past few years. Gunnar Bentz previously held the 15-16 record at 1:45.17 from 2012. Seliskar dropped the time below 1:45, then Andrew broke the 1:44 and 1:43 barriers in consecutive swims.
Here’s a look at the splits of Andrew’s two races today compared to Seliskar’s previous record:
| Andrew 2015 Finals | Andrew 2015 Prelims | Seliskar 2013 | |
| Fly | 21.65 | 21.84 | 23.01 |
| Back | 25.61 | 25.89 | 26.20 |
| Breast | 29.78 | 30.24 | 29.25 |
| Free | 25.73 | 25.97 | 25.57 |
| Final | 1:42.77 | 1:43.94 | 1:44.03 |
Andrew made strides in all four strokes in finals Thursday night, but his breaststroke was the biggest factor, dropping a half a second and dipping under 30 seconds. Interestingly enough, he’s still a full half-second behind Seliskar’s split, though he outsplit the former NCAP swimmer in a big way in fly and back.
Andrew managed to drop two tenths of a second like clockwork in his non-breaststroke splits, which should bode well for his coming individual races in the odd strokes later this weekend.
Helluva swim, but the free splits were relatively weak in both the prelims and finals. I can’t help but think he could be flirting with the 1:41’s if he could just bring it home
200 IM Long course at Doha World Cup November 2015: 26.15 / 31.92 / 36.56 / 31.61 for 2:06.24. I watched the swim and he looked nothing like world class and he looked like he lacks conditioning on the freestyle leg.
Vespino was the Singapore prelims 200 IM world class? You can find one race from any top athlete in history and bash them over the head with it. Awesome comment bashing a 16 year old that just loves OUR sport.
Yes, Singapore prelims much better, and I hadn’t realised he had gone that fast. But why the 2:06 in Doha, and, more importantly, why the 2:06 in the Singapore finals? Seems weird.
By the way I wasn’t bashing a 16 year old just for the sake of it; I watched the Doha race live and was particularly underwhelmed, especially in the light of having watched Vendt and Dolan at a slightly older age. They seemed in a different class to me.
Singapore final 200 IM was his 4th race in about 1 hour during that evening session. Not sure any young age grouper is going to be able to handle that regiment.
Ok fair point.
Again, his freestyle split slower than his backstroke
I know dissenting opinions on MA are not tolerated, but the Phelps comparison ship has sailed and sunk. Phelps made the Olympics right after his 15th birthday. Being a longshot at 16/17 isn’t close to that.
Sorry to throw shade, that was an amazing swim.
As a frequent reader/commenter, it seems to me that the people who compare him to Phelps tend to do so in the way you just did, rather than as a way to say he’s going to be the next GOAT. I don’t see a lot of “omg next Phelps” from people who think he’s the real deal. I think it’s understood that they are two completely different swimmers and the comparison just isn’t valid.
1) Phelps grew up as a 200 flyer/mid distance-distance freestyler and then branched out into the IM’s and sprints. Andrew has so far grown up as a sprinter with no weak stroke. In most of those events, Andrew is faster than Phelps was at that age.… Read more »
In addition blaming Andrew for not qualifying for the Olympics at 15 is ridiculous as there was no Olympics in the year Andrew was 15. Although I don’t think Andrew will qualify for Rio as you said the depth of field is way deeper than when Phelps qualified at 15.
Congrats Mr Andrew. He really puts the SCY NAG records at a crazy high level.
21.6 ?!
21.65, faster than what David Nolan went out in his AR. People are figuring out a fast, smooth fly stroke and its exciting to see the world start to catch up to what Phelps started doing a decade and a half ago.
Thanks for that David Nolan stat, Paul. I think Lochte’s fly split when he went 1:40.0 was a high 21. I can’t remember seeing a faster fly split than 21.6.
Bradley Ally at the 2009 ncaa’s went out in a 21.4 for the fly leg
Third fastest swimmer in the 200 IM, 18&U, and he’s 16. Faster than Seliskar, Phelps, Kaliscz at that age. With his finals time, he’d have been 10th in prelims at NCAA last year, 7th in the final.
This guy is the bomb. This is the real deal. I’ve been following him since about 2011, shortly after I became a swimmer (I started at 15) and have watched him drop time over and over. The kid works insanely hard and is incredibly consistent. Say what you want, but this kid has been headed straight to the top since he was about 11. Talent? Nope. This was built on purpose. Way to go Michael.